I Can Recognize Everything, But the Information is Wrong

Chapter 269 233 Ginseng Soup

Upon hearing this, Elder Ran's face lit up with joy, nearly jumping out of his seat in excitement.

A fragrant aroma drifted into the room from outside, where his cousin's wife was carrying a transmission plate which held a pot.

Steam wafted out from the pot, and a group of children followed behind his cousin's wife.

The children scrambled and yelled, "I want to drink it too."

But Elder Ran scolded, "No manners at all, why don't you take these brats outside?"

At this moment, the old woman took the children out of the room, and his cousin's wife placed the transmission plate on the table, lifting the lid to reveal a thick soup with floating bits of meat. Elder Ran couldn't help but swallow his saliva.

Tian Lin glanced at it only once, almost vomiting out the food in his stomach.

With his True Eye activated, he saw countless distorted human faces wailing within it.

At this moment, no matter how fragrant the aroma that filled his nostrils, Tian Lin felt like vomiting.

Elder Ran noticed something off about Tian Lin's expression and explained to him:

"This ginseng soup is bestowed by Lady Qianshi. Only during the annual God Worshiping ceremony do the Yu Family members have the opportunity to share it, divided among the men, each getting a bowl."

Hearing this, Tian Lin knew he could not decline the kind offer.

By then, Elder Ran had already scooped a bowl of ginseng soup and handed it to Tian Lin.

Tian Lin thought for a moment and gestured to a little girl peeking from outside.

The little girl came in, and Tian Lin asked her with a smile, "Have you ever had this soup?"

The little girl swallowed her saliva and nodded repeatedly, then quickly shook her head, "I only had a sip once; my dad wouldn't let me drink more."

Tian Lin smiled again and handed the bowl of ginseng soup to the little girl.

Just as the little girl was about to take it, Elder Ran slammed the table and scolded, "This is for guests, there's only so much of it. If you drink it, what will your Grandpa Tian drink?"

Elder Ran twitched a little at the corner of his mouth. His uncle had inadvertently elevated Tian Lin's social rank, making him akin to an uncle for Ran.

This wasn't a big deal, but Tian Lin giving his ginseng soup to a child of the Yu Family was indeed generous.

Yet, as his uncle's own nephew, he got to share this thanks to Tian Lin's generosity.

Elder Gao didn't want to offend his uncle's family and reluctantly gave up his bowl of soup to the child as well.

Tian Lin, however, stopped Elder Ran, saying, "I practice a secret technique in the immortal gate, so I temporarily must avoid meat and greasy food. Unlike you, you don't practice this technique, so you shouldn't have these restrictions."

Enlightened, Elder Ran responded, "No wonder since I met Tian, I've only seen him eat Spirit Rice and drink tea. It turns out it's because of his secret cultivation practice."

He explained to his uncle, "The secret techniques of the Wendaos Sect are only practiced by those favored by the Sect Elders. It shows that Tian has a promising future. Uncle, try to arrange for him to join a God Worshiping ceremony."

Tian Lin was initially just curious about the God Worshiping event, but seeing the ginseng soup bestowed by Lady Qianshi had considerably dampened his curiosity.

He straightforwardly said, "If Elder Yu finds it difficult, no worries. I came here primarily to help Elder Ran with moving corpses."

Elder Yu looked at his nephew and said, "You keep your corpse in my yard for now. Later, I'll take you and Tian to see the ceremony."

After finishing his speech, he began to drink the soup. While enjoying the soup, he expressed regret for Tian Lin:

"This ginseng soup is available only once a year, and not enough even to be a joke. This small pot in the room is also gathered from the rations I and a few of my cousins."

Although the ginseng soup seemed tempting, Tian Lin felt no appetite for it.

But he was amazed to see that after Elder Ran had a sip of the ginseng soup, the grayiness in his hair visibly began to disappear.

Not only that, but his white hair seemed to turn a shade darker, and the wrinkles on his face also seemed to diminish.

His eyes cleared up, showing signs of a breakthrough in his cultivation.

Just half a bowl in, Elder Ran looked radiant, and after a full bowl, he even seemed more upright.

"This one bowl of soup has saved my life."

After cleaning his bowl and utensils, Elder Ran suddenly burst into tears.

He stood up first to bow to his uncle and then bowed to Tian Lin.

Tian Lin refused to accept his grand gesture and quickly stood up to avoid it.

Wiping his tears, Elder Ran explained, "Don't laugh at me, Tian. This bowl of ginseng soup truly saved my life.

You don't know, but us corpse chasers living in the land of mass burial and dealing with dry corpses all year round inevitably suffer from diseases burrowed deep into our bones.

Such diseases cannot be cured by ordinary medicine anymore. The other day, when I agreed to venture into the Chaotic Burial Forest with you, it was because I knew I wouldn't live for many more years and wanted to leave some wealth for Huilong Village before I die.

Now, with this bowl of ginseng soup, my past illness is cured. Not only might I live another hundred years, but I also have hopes of reaching the late stage of Foundation Establishment."

Elder Yu also sighed and said to Tian Lin:

"My nephew might not have the best aptitude, but his ability to become the Clan Leader of Huilong Village and reach the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment shows his competence."

"Unfortunately, he was born in Huilong Village, and Huilong Village trapped his footsteps."

Tian Lin didn't care how tragic Elder Ran's past was, and couldn't empathize with him, so he clasped his hands and congratulated Elder Ran, "Now that you have the ginseng soup, your hardship has turned to joy, congratulations."

By this time, Elder Yu finally asked the old lady outside, "Is the mourning attire ready?"

The old lady entered the house and retrieved two sets of mourning clothes.

Elder Yu took the mourning clothes, handing one set to Tian Lin and one to Elder Ran.

Elder Yu explained to Tian Lin, "Lady Qianshi's ritual to honor the gods does not allow outsiders to observe. Therefore, my friend, you need to wear the mourning attire of my Yu Family to impersonate a member of our family."

Tian Lin nodded, aware that in Funeral Science, there were many rules about recognizing clothes rather than people.

The mourning attire in his hands surely belonged to a brother from Elder Yu's family, who had worn it before his death.

The lingering scent of the clothes, the ancestral spirits of the Yu Family, and the gods worshipped by the Yu Family would identify someone based on this scent.

At this moment, the three of them went outside to change into the mourning clothes, and a group of children who had been waiting outside rushed into the main house to snatch Elder Ran and Elder Yu's empty bowls.

Elder Yu's was somewhat better, with remnants of ginseng soup staining the bowl and chopsticks.

Only the child who grabbed Elder Ran's set couldn't help but curse, "Damn it, why is there only saliva in the bowl?"

Inside the side room as Elder Ran was changing into mourning attire with a flushed face, he was worried that Tian Lin would laugh at him and quickly changed the topic:

"Every village has rituals to honor the gods, but the Yu Family's ritual is different. Lady Qianshi is a top-grade god, and she responds to mortals and can issue divine mandates."

Tian Lin responded, asking, "Then how are the ranks of the gods divided in the land of mass burial?"

Elder Ran, momentarily at a loss for words, said, "Before it became a burial site, all properly enshrined gods in the land of mass burial were top-grade. But after dynasties built upon this land collapsed, turning it into a land of death, the ranks of gods became disordered. My cultivation is too low, so I don't know much about it."

Elder Yu outside did not change into mourning clothes, as he was already wearing them.

After a while, he finally saw Tian Lin and Elder Ran come out together.

"I've already spoken with the Village Chief, and he has agreed to let the two of you attend the ceremony.

However, during the ceremony, be careful not to get too close, speak too much, or act rashly."

Tian Lin nodded, and Elder Yu led them out with a worried heart.

At this moment, all the men from Yu Family Village gathered at the small path at the village entrance, while not a single woman or girl was visible.

Each household's door was tightly closed, with incense sticks placed at the entrance.

Elder Ran noticed Tian Lin looking at the incense sticks at each door and explained:

"Three incense sticks cut flat and burning evenly are Peace Incense. They symbolize a prayer for safety and also a way to detect danger—

If one of the three incense sticks suddenly burns much faster and becomes shorter than the others, it indicates that a major calamity or an Evil Spirit has arrived."

Tian Lin, having heard this, asked Elder Ran, "I recall an elder from my sect lighting the Peace Incense, and you mentioned that our sect elder's Peace Incense is different, what does that mean?"

Elder Ran said, "That Elder Gao from your sect doesn't seem like an elder from Wendaos Sect, rather, she resembles an elder from the Xiangxi Sect. Her use of Peace Incense has surpassed its original purpose.

Originally, corpse chasers placed Peace Incense in front of coffins to observe whether the bodies inside would turn into undead.

But Elder Gao uses the Peace Incense to forcibly ensure peace, turning all the potential undead into peacefully resting corpses."

After pondering for a moment, Tian Lin finally grasped Elder Ran's explanation.

It seemed to be a case of putting the cart before the horse—

Peace Incense remains uniformly burning due to the sleeping corpses not turning into undead.

But Elder Gao uses the uniformly burning Peace Incense to forcibly put the undead to sleep.

"Our Elder Gao, who practices one of the five Heterodox arts of funeral science within our sect, has indeed mastered this art of burning incense to a divine level, making it unsurprising."

With these thoughts, Tian Lin followed Elder Yu to the village entrance.

As outsiders, they did not push their way into the crowd.

Instead, they stood at the back, like other boys.

The children were chatting idly, and the adults in front were also gossiping, but no one spoke about how to worship Lady Qianshi.

Just when Tian Lin was feeling utterly bored, a middle-aged man ran from the south end of the village shouting, "Terrible news, another person has hanged themselves in the village!"

Among the crowd, an adult said, "What can be done about this? This makes thirty people who have hanged themselves in just a month."

Another person added, "I told you, we shouldn't offend the Fox God. Now, the Fox God is seeking revenge."

"What should we do?"

"Of course, we have to go and seek Lady Qianshi."

The people were concise in their dialogue, mentioning death and seeking Lady Qianshi casually without much emotion.

Tian Lin initially couldn't grasp what they were up to until he saw some individuals pulling reed-pipes out of their Storage Bags, realizing they were now 'summoning the divine'.

The earlier conversation was merely a prelude to the ritual.